Spurn Bird Observatory

  Between Monday and Thursday, I spent a few days visiting Spurn to catch up with old friends. This time there was no mega that arrived simultaneously with me, but there were a few nice birds and a lot of nice insects. I spent most of my time checking the various ponds and waterways to tot up exactly how many dragonflies and damselflies there were on the wing.

  That said there were still a few birds around. A Great Egret was enjoying life on Canal Scrape before roosting at Pancho’s Pond at night. There were also a large number of terns around, mostly Little Tern and Sandwich Tern but also a pair of cracking Roseate Terns that were delightful to watch during one afternoon. The birding highlight though was finally adding Red-legged Partridge to my Spurn list. I had been checking the local fields from the vantage point of the observatory tower but had neither seen nor heard anything. Then one evening as we were ringing Swallows and Sand Martins in Sykes Field I heard the distinctive call of a single Red-legged Partridge in the fields on the far side of the road. I rushed across and spotted the bird making a break for it across the recently cut North Field. A long-awaited addition to my Spurn list finally falls.  

  On the insect front I managed to record up to 10 species of Odonata on each day, which will help greatly when it comes to writing the report this year. The highlight were the Small Red-eyed Damselflies. Initially we could only find them distantly on Canal Scrape, their usual hangout, but we then subsequently found them in Sykes Field and a single on Clubleys Scrape, both new sites for the species. Emerald Damselflies were also in good numbers, and among the throngs of Common Darter it was possible to find the occasional Ruddy. I also did a full area count of Emperor Dragonflies and managed to get 45 adults flying around, a new area record by more than 10 insects. 

-Great Egret

-Common Lizard

-Ruddy Darter

-Emperor Dragonfly

-Emerald Damselfly

-Small Red-eyed Damselfly

Species List:
Spurn Bird Observatory: Greylag Goose, Mute Swan, Common Shelduck, Mallard, Red-legged Partridge, Common Pheasant, Feral Pigeon, Stock Dove, Common Wood Pigeon, Eurasian Collared Dove, Common Swift, Common Moorhen, Eurasian Coot, Eurasian Oystercatcher, European Golden Plover, Eurasian Whimbrel, Eurasian Curlew, Bar-tailed Godwit, Red Knot, Dunlin, Common Redshank, Little Gull, Black-headed Gull, Mediterranean Gull, Common Gull, European Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Roseate Tern, Common Tern, Little Tern, Sandwich Tern, Great Cormorant, Grey Heron, Great Egret, Little Egret, Eurasian Spoonbill, Western Marsh Harrier, Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Common Buzzard, Common Kestrel, Eurasian Magpie, Carrion Crow, Eurasian Blue Tit, Great Tit, Eurasian Skylark, Sedge Warbler, Eurasian Reed Warbler, Sand Martin, Barn Swallow, Common House Martin, Common Chiffchaff, Common Whitethroat, Eurasian Wren, Common Starling, Song Thrush, Common Blackbird, European Robin, Northern Wheatear, Dunnock, House Sparrow, Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Western Yellow Wagtail, Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Eurasian Bullfinch, European Greenfinch, Common Linnet, European Goldfinch, Yellowhammer, Common Reed Bunting, Roe Deer, Brown Hare, Red Fox, Emerald Damselfly, Common Blue Damselfly, Azure Damselfly, Common Blue-tailed Damselfly, Small Red-eyed Damselfly, Emperor Dragonfly, Four-spot Chaser, Black-tailed Skimmer, Ruddy Darter, Common Darter,

Dorset Holiday-Day 9: Hartland Moor

So today was our last full day in Dorset, and once more it was about 30 degrees, perfect weather for walking around the heathland. Since it was a Monday, there was a reasonable bus service and so made my way down to Hartland Moor. This is a large moor with hides and bogs, directly adjacent to Stoborough Heath that I went to on our first full day and had a really good day.

It involved a bit more walking to than Stoborough had done, and the hides were on the other side of the reserve, so when I made it there I devised a plan of action. The reserve was set around a small hill called The Great Knoll, so I decided to walk around this to get to the hide and then come back round the other side. I started in the boggy area, but quickly found a lack of path leaving me rather stranded. I found that I was surrounded by Four Spot Chasers and Keeled Skimmers as well as some Broad Bodied Chasers. 

As I made my way through the bog to the various patches of trees. As I made my way I flushed some large woodpecker sized brown birds, which when I eventually caught up with them turned out to be Mistle Thrushes, a new species for the holiday.

-Mistle Thrush

But maybe some of the woodpecker sized birds were woodpecker sized because they were woodpeckers, as I found when I flushed a lovely adult Green Woodpecker

-Green Woodpecker

As I made my way through the bog, I noticed a random section of fence with a life raft on it, and I rightly assumed that this must be a view point to the bog with a section of dry land. I therefore headed to that spot by the driest route that I could see, which involved following the tree line and resulted in me spooking a Sika Deer, which once more jumped out and surprised me!

-Sika Deer

When I made it to the fence I saw that it looked over a large shallow pool where there were many dragonflies and damselflies. There was one Emperor Dragonfly which was relegating most other dragonflies to the banks, this included Keeled Skimmers. 

-Keeled Skimmer

There were quite a few damselflies around too. Today was probably my last chance to record southern damselfly or it would elude me for another year. On this pool they were lacking. There were a few damselflies around, mainly Azure and Common Emerald Damselflies.

-Emerald Damselfly

From this 'fence' I could see another at the base of the Knoll, so I headed over in that direction for the most part on dry land. However going by dry land led me away from where I wanted to be. There was a ridge in front of me with a long thin pool between me and the ridge. On this pool there were Keeled Skimmers and Black Darters, which were a great addition to my dragonfly species for the holiday. They were more flighty that I would have expected from a darter and so my initial photo was not very good.

-Black Darter

I found a narrow part of the pool and jumped onto the ridge. From there I could see that over the ridge was a quite large pool with some areas of extensive aquatic vegetation. Here there were a lot more damselflies, including Large and Small Red Damselflies. It seems odd to think that until a week ago I had only ever seen one of this species and now I was taking it for granted.

-Small Red Damselflies

I wandered around the pool and there were some more flighty black darters but only Azure and Common Blue Damselflies, no southern. I therefore set off round the northern side of the Knoll on an actual footpath which was a relief. As I set off I noticed a Common Buzzard soaring overhead, presumably using the more than ample thermals.

-Common Buzzard

Around 300 meters round the knoll and I came to an area of open Birch woodland and Gorse and it was here that I spotted my daily allowance of that wonderful heathland bird the Dartford Warbler. There was a large group of them and I got some great views as they flew around me, and I even got some nice photos. However, it happened to be one of those times in life when it just goes wrong. I was watching the warblers when my phone went off. I had it on loud so that I could here it in my bag if it went off, since nobody texts me but if my family needed me they would be able to get me. It was my mum, reminding me to put on a hat. There are no words, especially when the hat was already on my head. Needless to say, once the photo went off I saw no more warblers.

-Dartford Warbler

I reached an area of more bog and here there was extensive cover of Round Leaved Sundews, some of which were even in flower, the first time I have seen this plant in flower. Please note though that the yellow flowers in the photo are not sundew flowers, they are the smaller white flowers.

-Round leaved sundews

I made my way round and found another pond, this time with more tree cover, though it was fairly quiet on the wildlife front. I made my way back to the path from this pond and there suddenly seemed to be birds everywhere; Stonechat, Dartford Warbler and Linnet, though they all flew off as soon as I noticed them.

-Linnet

I made my way round until I saw a path come off from the circular path round the Knoll. It seemed to be heading off towards where the hides were. Therefore I went along this path and found another pool, with deep wet sedge all around it. This pool had the usual dragonflies but once more one Azure Damselflies, though the most exciting thing at this point as a lovely bold male Stonechat singing from a gorse bush next to the pond, though it then moved on.

I then made my way down the path and onto the main path which the hides were on. It turned out to be a pretty pointless trip. I disturbed a handful of lizards but did not see what kind they were, and I also got reasonable views of Meadow Pipits but that was about it. I made it to the hide but it just looked over the heath and the footpath ran in front of it as well as behind. Needless to say, I did not see anything while I was in it.

The way back down the track provided a bit more, with good views of Linnets and a Golden Ringed Dragonfly hunting along the path. As with all these southern golden rings, if they landed they would not let you get close. As a result, my photo record with this species this holiday remained poor.

-Golden Ringed Dragonfly

I made my way cross country back to the pond where I had seen the stonechat. On my way there I found Small Red Damselfly at another small pond with the fence like structure and life ring. I took some more photos to increase my record library of this species. I had a look to see if there were any other Zygoptera ad found a Common Darter female. 

-Small Red Damselfly

I continued to make my back to the pond next to the path. Once there I once more started to look to see what was about. It seemed to have quietened down rather than got busier and no matter how many damselflies I checked they were all Azure. I followed a Four Spot Chaser into the wet sedge meadow. Once I got there I lost the chaser, but spotted another damselfly landed in the sedge. Before I even checked I knew that it would indeed be a southern, and when I checked the photos I had taken to be double sure it was confirmed that I had indeed settled my score with this species and finally been able to tick Southern Damselfly. Once I started looking, following the one I had found around I found a couple of others, including a pair in their mating position. I gathered loads of photos to try and record every angle of the species for my library, but really I would have been content to just savor the moment of finally ticking this species after the disaster on Angelsey last year. 

-Southern Damselfly

I was well choughed with finally finding one, and then finding more. I decided to leave them for now and explore the rest of the reserve and come back when I had finished, since I had noticed that I only had about an hour before I would need to leave for my bus. 

I continued round the knoll as had been my plan and found another pool with the fence like structure in front of me. However, as I drew nearer I noticed that it was actually the same pond I had started my circuit at, and that left me feeling really confused. My 180 degree walk round the knoll had turned into a 300 degree walk. I therefore decided to climb the knoll to see if I could see anything on top, namely dartford warblers.

On my way up I found some metal tins for reptiles, though there were none under any this late in the day. The top was a bit of a disappointment, as I did not really see anything. On the way down though I found a female Keeled Skimmer that had taken on a Small Heath Butterfly and was sat there munching this butterfly was quite a size. However, the dragonfly was not keen to share its dinner with my camera and so my only photo, below was not that good.

-Female Keeled Skimmer feeding on Small Heath

Having finished quicker than I thought up on the top, I made my way back round to the southern damselflies but stopping off at the pond before reaching it. I walked down the ridge to see if I could find any Black Darters and was successful, but the wind had picked up and the perch it was sat on did not stay still so my photo was not really as good as I wanted it.

-Black Darter

There were also more Small Red Damselflies, though this time it was a slightly menalistic version, as some of its body was black, adding a little variety to my photo library.

-Small Red Damselfly

Once finished there, convinced I had seen all I could, I made my way back to where the Southern Damselflies had been. Luckily it did not take me long to track down one and continue my appreciation of this species. I also took some some more photos...

-Southern Damselfly

You will notice that on the bottom two photos the damselfly is having its lunch, which I only noticed afterwards when I looked back at my photos.

I then had to leave the damselflies to make sure I caught my bus. On the way out I called off at the boggy section to see if there was anything going on there. There were the usual dragonflies but then I spotted that one of those I had assumed to be an emperor was not actually and was a hawker. I spent as long as I dared trying to photograph it in flight but only managed one excusable photo for identification purposes. Those purposes showed that it was a Common Hawker, my first of the holiday, which added to my dragonfly list.

-Common Hawker

I did not have to run for my bus, only wait about 5 mins. The journey back was none eventful, as I decided to go by train from Wareham to Moreton rather than try and get a lift. Besides, I had found that buses here were as expensive as trains, so why not use the train.

Back at the caravan site I went for a shower to wash away my weariness. However, even that did not finish my wildlife day as soon as I came out of the shower I spotted a very pretty moth on the radiator. I headed home for the camera and then returned to take some photos for i.d. Turns out that this is a Buff Arches Moth, which I have not seen before.

-Buff Arches Moth

As I sat up to leave once I had photographed the moth I spotted another moth on the light, but this one needed no introducing, Common Footman its odd that a day flying moth would be sat on the light of a shower block, especially since the light was off, so it had obviously been there since the light was on. I moved the footman since I could not really get a good photo from where I was and where it was. I was a worried that as a day flying moth it might just fly off but no, I was able to move it outside and get some reasonable photos.

I am familiar with common footman, and it is one of my favorite moths, though I have only ever seen it once before, at Pottric Carr .

-Common Footman

I left the shower block two moth species richer than I had arrived. But it seemed a fitting way to end the day and our time in Dorset, since tomorrow we were leaving for Fareham. I had still one reserve on my visit list, and that would wait for tomorrow, when my family were at the tank museum.

Dorset Holiday-Day 4: RSPB Arne

Today was another bright and sunny, and hot, day so I decided to make my way to RSPB Arne as it had high recommendation, and my parents were passing nearby and so could drop me off, since it was far from easy to get to by public transport. It was another heathland reserve, but had some woodland and meadows, though the latter were out of bounds, as well as some estuary and salt marsh. 

When I arrived it was already well over 25 degrees. First I made my way through the woods but there was not much going on there. The path then went by a section of estuary called Shipstal Beach. Here I left the woods and wandered round the saltmarsh for a bit. Around some of the small stagnant pools there were Keeled and Black Tailed Skimmers, both species I was beginning to get familiar with on this holiday 

-Black Tailed Skimmer

From the beach I was able to look over the bay towards Brownsea Island. There were more birds here than there had been on any other site I had so far visited. From the beach I could see a few curlews and a shelduck flew over.

-Shelduck

I made my way towards the hide, via the ponds and heathland. The heathland was not very exciting, but the ponds had some nice dragon and damselflies. There were Emperor Dragonflies and Four Spot Chasers, while on the damselfly front there were Small Red Damselflies and Common Emerald Damselflies. Small red damselflies were so abundant that I had started to take them for granted. It seems odd that less than 5 days ago I had only ever seen one, in a misty lake in wales 

-Small Red Damselflies

At the hide I got good views out over the saltmarsh. I can imagine in winter that there would be ample birds but on this hot summers day there did seem to be a lack. There was a large flock of curlews, as well as a group of Little Egrets probably the largest flock of them I have ever seen. There was also a few Black Headed Gulls around, as well as a handful of Woodpigeons. In front of the hide directly there was a large sand bank and on it were some roosting Cormorants. Close examination revealed Greater Black Backed Gulls and Oystercatchers there too, so on the whole, an improvement on the bird front.

-Cormorants, Oystercatchers and Greater Black Backed Gulls

-Little Egrets

I made my way round the top heathland and found plenty of shallow pools not shown on the map. I scrambled down the bank to get a closer look at them. There were plenty of keeled skimmers and four spot chasers and also a couple of butterflies, like Common Blue

-Common Blue

The pools still had some of the damselflies described from earlier, such as small red damselfly, which was becoming something of a formality

-Small Red Damselfly

After I had explored the top loop of the heathland, I made my way down past Arne Farm back to the visitor center where I could wander off to the proper heathland section of the reserve. The meadow did not have many insects as the reserve leaflet suggested, but there were quite a few Meadow Brown butterflies

The heathland had one pond on it, so here is where I went first, as it being lunchtime I had intended to sit and see if I could spot a raft spider, which was one of Arnes specialties. The first thing I saw when I got to the pond was a Green Woodpecker, which had flown over from the adjacent woodland. Its odd to see a green woodpecker in a tree, but it really highlighted the outline of the bird

-Green Woodpecker

At the pond the main species were the four spotted chasers which were the most obliging I had ever come across. There was a stick placed near to the bench I was sat on, which they regularly came to, so I was able to take my best photos yet of this fairly abundant dragonfly species.

-Four Spotted Chaser

While having my lunch though, a party of elderly people came and the peace was shattered. They were nice enough, some even joking, saying 'And you thought you were going to have a peaceful lunch' and the like, but the secretive spider did not come out while they were there. Once they had left and my lunch had finished I had a wander around the pool to see what was about, and if any spiders were lurking around the back. 

I did not find any spiders, but when I mounted the bank I flushed 2 Sika Deer from the shrubbery. They probably gave me as much of a fright as I gave them. It is the first time I have seen this kind of deer, but I have now completed my list of "British" deer (though I don't count reindeer as some people do) so this was a 'finishing off the category' kind of tick, but even so. I was surprised at how big these deer were, almost red deer size, when I was expecting a much more slender deer, like a fallow.

-Sika Deer

After I had been round the pond and found no spiders I headed up on to the heathland to the hide there and to see if I could find any dartford warblers. I diddnt, but I did find a Meadow Pipit which was taking food into the heather, where I can assume that there would be a nest

-Meadow Pipit

The hide was disappointing and that's an understatement. The only birds there were Black Headed Gulls, and the walk down to it involved being savaged by Cleg Flies, which seem to love me since our trip to Angelsey 

On the top of the moors I spotted more deer in the distance, but they dissapeared into a thicket. I also watched a male Stonechat calling, and caught up with some lovely Silver Studded Blue butterflies. I found myself not really appreciating these really rather rare butterflies since I had seen them before and they seemed to be everywhere. Therefore I made an effort to find one landed so I could once again record it. It took some time though, even though I was surrounded by them, as few of them seemed keen to land. When I did find one though...

-Silver Studded Blue

On my way back into the wooded bit of the reserve I decided to have another look at the pond, see if any spiders had turned up. I had a quick look and was about to go when there it was. It was huge at the top of the reeds. I could hardly believe it, there was a Raft Spider, Britain's second largest spider. I took a few photos before I stealthily ambled closer. When I was closer I noticed that there was an egg sack at the top of the grass stems which the spider must have been guarding. It was a big spider, but seemed bigger because it had sturdy legs and not weeny legs like some other large spiders. It would have been about 7 cm long

-Raft Spider

I then tried to move some obstructing reeds but the spider bolted, rather it vanished, straight down the stem and into the water. I decided to move on and come back in a bit to see if it would come back out. Since there was a nest there I assumed that it would at some point so I set off round the top part of the reserve to kill some time for it to come back out.

In the woods I actually saw a bird this time. In the gorse on the woodland edge I could hear an constant chirping and when I started to look I found the cause the be a fledgling chaffinch which was rather bold, as it did not fly away when I found it, as I was quite close to it. 

-Chaffinch Fledgling 

I made my way back to the ponds, but since it was getting quite late in the afternoon most of the dragonflies had roosted up for the evening. At the second pond though I found not a dragonfly but a lizard, which was my first reptile on a holiday where every site claimed that there all 6 British Reptiles. This was a Common Lizard which looked lovely, though as you would expect I could not really get a good photo because of the amount of vegetation debris.

-Common Lizard

On my way round the top loop I flushed some more sika deer, this time even closer than they had been the first time. But aside from them I did not see anything, and most of the reserves life had gone to bed it would seem, and even though it was only around four o'clock you could be excused for thinking it as late as 7, it was really becoming rather like twilight.

After I had been round the loop I made my way back to the pond before I set off walking back to Wareham. I could not see the spider where it had been, and had a quick look elsewhere, only for it to be on the other side of where it had been and that I had completely missed it, hard to do you would think for such a large spider.

-Raft Spider

This time I made a point of not moving anything to avoid disturbing the spider and left it where it was. On my way back to the road, a sika deer wandered right across the path in front of me. I was impressed since the others I had seen had all taken flight at the first sight of me. This one did not seem bothered in the slightest as it sauntered across the path. 

-Sika Deer

I made my way to the road and began to walk back feeling very satisfied. With the exception of dartford warbler I had seen all of Arnes specialties. On the walk back I saw more deer, but also stonechat, Common Buzzard and Treecreeper, which was a holiday first.